Families of malnourished children seek govt support

KABUL (Pajhwok): Families of malnourished children call on donor agencies and the government to save their children’s lives while the Ministry of Public Health has announced starting a program to deal with malnutrition in the country.

Recently the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published a report titled “UNICEF Humanitarian Situation in Afghanistan: 1 to 31 January 2022” once again stating that $ 2 billion is needed to help children in this country.

What is malnutrition?

According to doctors, malnutrition refers to cases in which a person’s diet does not provide adequate nutrients or a proper balance of nutrients for optimal health.

They say inadequate nutrition is a form of malnutrition. This happens when the body is not getting enough food and this deficiency can lead to growth retardation, weight loss, and a person with malnutrition will be deficient in vitamins, resulting in some diseases, such as vision problems.

Dr. Mohammad Arif Hassanzai, a pediatrician at Kabul Indira Gandhi Child Health Hospital, said that malnutrition refers to cases in which a person’s diet does not provide adequate nutrients or a proper balance of nutrients for good health.

He added: “There are two types of malnutrition: the first type is malnutrition, which is in the form of excessive weight loss; children only skin and bones remain; “They lose a lot of weight and their muscles melt, and another type of it manifests itself in the form of convulsion, which can be acute or chronic.”

“Children with severe malnutrition also develop other diseases such as pneumonia and armpit, jaundice and other diseases,” said Hassanzai.

“If the malnourished child is not treated in time, it is dangerous, and if it is corrected, it may affect the developmental process of the child; For example, a child is short or he may not be as intelligent as a healthy child; “As we said in the case of malnutrition, if enough food reaches the child, if the families are aware of the malnutrition in time and give enough food to their child, it is a precaution.”

Hassanzai added that children should be vaccinated from birth to five years old to prevent malnutrition.

According to him, another way of prevention is that mothers should give their milk to their children and not use artificial milk; because mother milk is the most nutritious food for the baby and also reduces the risk of diseases.

According to him, mothers should use food for their babies in addition to their milk after six months.

Recorded cases of malnutrition in Child Health Hospital

Hassanzai said in the last two years, economic poverty has increased in the country due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and political changes, and increasing poverty has led to an increase in the number of malnourished cases.

“There is more malnutrition in Afghanistan this year than in previous years,” he said. “But that does not mean we did not have any malnutrition patients in previous years.”

He said more than 570 cases of malnutrition were reported at the hospital last year; But this year the figure reaches 700.

He added: “Children who have an accompanying illness; “We use medicine for them, but if they are just malnourished, we treat them with special milks.”

He called the increase in malnutrition as “worrying”, but said that if there was a shortage of beds, they would even put them in the passages.

It is noteworthy that there are currently 15 malnourished patients in this hospital.

Hassanzai added: “We have some problems with the room; But we try the rooms be used by patients, and we could not reject the patient, even if we had few rooms in the hospital; We also used vestibules; “We even use one bed for two patients.”

In a message, Hassanzai called on the international community to continue its assistance to the Afghan people.

Families of children suffering from malnutrition also seek assistance.

Qamargula is grandmother of a two-year-old child suffering from malnutrition and is currently hospitalized in Kabul’s Child Health Hospital.

She said that after the outbreak of the coronavirus, his son, who worked in a non-governmental organization, became unemployed and their economic situation deteriorated day by day.

According to her, her grandson was healthy when their economic situation was good and they had better food; But after struggling financially, the child slowly became weak and eventually malnourished.

Qamargula added: “We went to two doctors; “But the doctors said you should take this child to the child’s health hospital, he will get well there and he will be in this hospital for a week now.”

She said vomiting, anorexia and hair loss were some of the symptoms in her grandchild, which resulted in him losing too much weight.

The mothers of other malnourished children hospitalized at the hospital declined to be interviewed by Pajhwok; But they all blamed economic problems for their children’s malnutrition and called for help from aid agencies and the Ministry of Public Health.

MoPH has plans to deal with malnutrition

Javed Hajir, a spokesman for MoPH, told Pajhwok that the ministry, with the help of the World Health Organization and the World Food Program, was working on some programs to curb malnutrition in the country.

According to him, the ministry, in cooperation with aid agencies, has launched a program to distribute fortified milk and vitamin-rich biscuits.

“In addition to launching a campaign called The Importance of Breastfeeding and Food Variety, we recently purchased food production machines with the help of the World Food Program, which will be operational in the near future,” he added.»

According to Hajir, of the 4.4 million mothers and children under the age of five who are malnourished, 1.1 million are severely malnourished and another 2.3 million are children with moderate malnutrition.

He added that there were more than 13 hundred active basic health centers across Afghanistan and the field of treatment of malnourished patients is favorable.

sa

Views: 158